We’ve always been told that vaccines are safe, effective and necessary. We hear how
modern civilization has been saved from the ravages of infectious disease by the
invention of miraculous vaccines. We hear how important it is for children to get
their shots so they’ll be safe from disease. And we all agree: Children have a right
to be protected from harm. But there’s a huge body of information that indicates
that vaccinations are dangerous.

There are just too many unanswered questions. Do vaccines put infants at risk of
sudden death? Do vaccines really give our children immunity to disease? Are all vaccines
really necessary? Are our children unhealthy as a result of vaccination? Are the
climbing rates of infectious and degenerative diseases among adult Americans partly
attributable to the effects of vaccination?

We’re programmed to think of immunization and vaccination as synonyms. That’s no
accident. It cost plenty to make us think they’re the same. The word “immunization”
instead of “vaccination” is now pervasive in both medical and mainstream literature,
creating a semantic reality that cannot be supported by evidence. There is a big
difference between the two. Immunization means to make someone immune to something.
Vaccination, by contrast, according to Dorland’s Medical Dictionary, just means to
inject “a suspension of attenuated or killed microorganisms...administered for prevention...or
treatment of infectious disease.”

Vaccination does not guarantee immunity. Natural immunity happens only after one
recovers from the actual disease. During the disease, the microorganism usually has
to pass through many of the body’s natural immune defense systems—in the nose, throat,
lungs, digestive tract and lymph tissue—before it reaches the bloodstream. As it
does, the microorganism triggers many biological events that are essential in building
true natural immunity. When a child gets a new disease, he may feel sick for several
days, but, in the vast majority of cases, he will recover.

The first vaccines by Pasteur and Koch, and also most modern ones, were and are made
up of experimental proteins from rotting, diseased samples of animal tissue (cows,
sheep, monkeys and horses) carrying some “weakened” infectious agent. Others are
toxic by-products of microorganisms that are neutralized by formaldehyde and aluminum.
Most vaccines have components called adjuvants, or helpers. These include human blood
and formaldehyde, a carcinogenic liquid, used for embalming. Mercury is used as an
adjuvant; it is added in the form of thimerosal, a preservative. It can cause nerve
damage, autoimmune disorders and cancer. Another adjuvant, aluminum, is a proven
neurotoxin, positively associated with a number of disorders. Do we really get immunity
from these concoctions?

The thinking behind vaccination is that if the person gets a “minor” case of the
disease under the “controlled” conditions of vaccination, he will produce his own
antibodies to the disease agent, and this will confer immunity because his immune
system will remember what the “bad bug” looks like. The next time the bug shows up,
immune defense cells will be ready to kill it. But there is no general agreement
that this truly happens as a result of vaccination.
Unproven assumptions

Researchers like Alan Phillips, author of Dispelling Vaccination Myths, say that
“natural immunity is a complex phenomenon involving many organs and systems; it cannot
be fully replicated by the artificial stimulation of antibody production.” Vaccination
by direct injection is based on the unproven assumption that the mere artificial
stimulation of antibodies by the sudden presence of a foreign agent in the bloodstream
confers immunity. It doesn’t.

If the body is allowed to figure out how to fight the disease on its own, without
the added confusion and burden of vaccines and drugs, the body can develop natural
immunity and will not be susceptible to the same disease in the future. It now has
a memory of how to fight the disease.

Artificial immunity from vaccination is often temporary. This helps explain why some
individuals still develop the disease they were vaccinated against. This also is
the reason for booster shots. Artificial immunity from vaccination has created the
modern phenomenon of atypical forms of the original disease appearing during adulthood.

The process of creating a vaccine involves making a disease agent gradually weaker
and weaker, disguising it until it is below the threshold of making your body become
ill when the vaccine is injected into your blood. That means your immune system does
not get triggered normally. By allowing the inoculation of an attenuated (half-killed)
virus or bacteria into the body, we have done something nature would never permit.

We have violated the sanctity of the bloodstream. We have tricked the immune system
into not mounting an all-out response to a foreign agent. If the vaccine’s microorganisms
were not attenuated, all the powers of the natural immune system would join together
to attack the invader. Harvard Medical School’s Richard Moskowitz, M.D., explains
that the way vaccines are evolved is to make them weaker, just to the point where
they don’t produce any immediate inflammatory response. He believes that, in this
form, the altered virus or bacteria can penetrate deeper into our tissues than would
naturally be possible. They can remain latent for a short time or for years.

Then when something triggers them into action, they can manifest themselves in virtually
any place or system of the body, causing major dysfunction, degenerative disease,
or even death. There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculation can
be credited with eliminating any infectious disease. If vaccinations were responsible
for the disappearance of these diseases in the U.S., why did these diseases disappear
simultaneously in Europe, where mass vaccinations did not take place?

Undeserved credit

Medical statistician Michael Alderson, author of several classic research texts,
has shown how infectious diseases had sharply declined before mass vaccination ever
came upon the scene. Many researchers feel from looking at the data that infectious
diseases would have largely disappeared without any vaccines, due to improvements
in sanitation and hygiene before mass inoculations took place.

Australian medical researcher Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., summarized her investigation
of some 30,000 pages of medical literature on vaccination in “Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome,” a 1999 letter to Congress: “Immunizations, including those practiced on
babies, not only did not prevent any infectious diseases, they caused more suffering
and more deaths than has any other human activity in the entire history of medical
intervention. It will be decades before the mopping-up after the disasters caused
by childhood vaccination will be completed. All vaccinations should cease forthwith,
and all victims of their side effects should be appropriately compensated.”

We Didn’t Need to be Rescued This table show how dieseases have on their own during
this century. The numbers indicate the approximate year that mass vaccinations were
introduced. Year

Year

Polio

Smallpox

Diptheria

Pertusis

1901

6911

48839

33094

-

1906

352

28225

26436

-

1911

354

20350

20285

-

1916

495

15623

21385

-

1921

7229

781

12267

14724

1926

6038

227

7074

13047

1931

4545

51

4388

9850

1936

3666

9

2189

6809

1941

3539

9

1135

4399

1951

3826

0

125

558

1956

1604

0

45

206

1961

1076

0

22

82

1966

928

0

15

32

1971-75

0

5

12

122

Year

Tetanus

Measles

Influenza

1901

28065

1956

15496

1906

16318

10837

10109

1911

11503

7615

7086

1916

8596

7926

54283

1921

7818

4919

13673

1926

6040

3994

17602

1931

4709

2957

11191

1936

3275

1238

8449

1941

2384

1013

4366

1946

1697

469

1736

1951

1093

268

1178

1956

788

203

938

1961

550

162

553

1966

282

44

633

1971-75

22

7

491

The chart below shows when mass vaccinations for these deseases were introdued in
the U.S. Disease Year Mass Vaccinations Began:

Polio

1955

Smallpox

1902

Diphtheria

mid-1940’s

Pertussis

mid-1940’s

Tetanus

mid-1940’s

Measles

1963

H. influenzae

1985

Comparing these dates to the mortality rates above, it it obvious that diphtheria,
pertussis, influenza, etc., were on their way out long before their respective vaccines
were introduced on a mass scale. Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director of the Association
of American Physicians and Surgeons, agrees: “Public policy regarding vaccines is
fundamentally flawed...permeated by conflicts of interest. It is based on poor scientific
studies that are too small, too short and too limited.”

Dozens of other legitimate researchers and doctors have come to the same conclusion.
Alan Phillips adds that the data on vaccines shouldn’t really be that much of a secret:
“Hundreds of published medical studies document vaccine failure and adverse effects;
several dozen books have been written expounding on these and related information
condemning vaccines. Yet amazingly most pediatricians and parents are completely
unaware of these findings.”

As of December, 2000, 40 vaccinations are currently mandated for children in the
American Pediatric Association’s immunization (i.e., vaccination) schedule. The word
“mandated” doesn’t mean the same thing as mandatory, but for all intents and purposes,
it might as well. Vaccination is so accepted, is seen as so necessary by most people,
that they don’t even question it. If they do, the consequences can be ostracism or
worse.

Unless parents sign exemption forms, children must be vaccinated before they can
get into school. This is the law, and legislation is controlled by lobbying. The
second most powerful lobby in Washington is the pharmaceutical industry. We have
to ask, then, what is behind the vaccination schedule: proven health benefits for
our children or corporate profits?

Since 1986, the U.S. government has paid $1.2 billion to parents of vaccine-injured
and -killed children.

Pharmaceutical companies are inventing new vaccines every year, all with the hope
of their being included in the mandated vaccination schedule. It’s very big money.
And there are more vaccines on the back burner. Yet there are never long-term safety
studies before vaccines get approved for mass use. There are also never any follow-up
studies about long-term effectiveness of vaccines. This is why vaccines are always
being altered and replaced—they cause negative side effects. That is why, since 1986,
the U.S. Federal Government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP)
has paid out over $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars to parents of vaccine-injured
and -killed children. We and our children are “lab rats.”

Vaccines and our children’s declining healthBefore mass vaccination programs, the term Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
didn’t exist. Now at least 10,000 American babies mysteriously die each year with
the catch-all SIDS diagnosis. Meanwhile, the declining health of our children is
becoming obvious. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the figures
for asthma incidence since 1980 have gone from 6.7 million to 17.3 million cases.
Most of the increase is in children. More than 5,000 die each year from asthma attacks.
The overall health of American children is pathetic: Asthma, allergies, autoimmune
disease and the very infectious diseases for which they were vaccinated—all are on
the rise.

Over 15 years ago, the late Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., Professor of Medicine at University
of Illinois Medical School, wrote, “There is a growing suspicion that immunization
against relatively harmless childhood diseases may be responsible for the dramatic
increase in autoimmune diseases since mass inoculations were introduced.” These include
certain cancers, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s
disease, lupus and the motor neuron disease, Guillain-Barr&eacute; syndrome.
Some of the most frequent complications of vaccinations “gone wrong” seem to be diseases
of the central nervous system.

It’s easy to understand why, in the case of children. Their nervous systems are in
the process of forming, and nerve tissue is sensitive to minute changes in its biological
environment. The insulation around the nerves—the myelin—is not complete yet. The
presence in the blood of a diseased vaccine protein, plus the toxins mercury, aluminum
and formaldehyde, can trigger processes that contribute to abnormal nerve growth.

Harris Coulter, Ph.D., has chronicled a skyrocketing incidence of post-vaccination
neurological disorders, including hyperactivity, learning disabilities, mental retardation,
encephalitis and Guillain-Barr&eacute; syndrome. These statistics are missing
in the pediatric profession. Adverse reactions usually don’t get reported and are
routinely met with denial: There are many documented examples and case histories
of mothers given the brush-off when reporting a vaccine reaction to their pediatricians.
Perhaps the reason is basic economics: Vaccinations are the bread and butter of pediatricians.

What kind of money are we talking about here? In 1998, the worldwide market for pediatric
vaccines was $1.8 billion. But a lot more is involved than just the vaccine sales.
Vaccines are the very foundation of the “well baby” programs and therefore the livelihood
of the entire pediatric industry.

Unbelievably, not until recently was there a centralized U.S. record-keeping agency
to which physicians could report vaccine reactions. It wasn’t until 1991 that the
Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System (VAERS) was set up by the FDA and the CDC.
Some 33,000 reactions were reported between 1992 and 1996. Before then, it’s anybody’s
guess how many reactions and deaths there were, because no agency was keeping track.

The FDA estimates that doctors still only report a small fraction of these adverse
reactions—less than 10%. In 1998 the National Vaccine Information Center did a survey
of New York pediatric offices and found out that “only one doctor in 40 reports a
death or an injury following vaccination.” Yet this information has not been acted
upon by either the FDA or the CDC, even with documented reports of death and neurological
damage to infants.

Many of the adverse reactions to vaccination probably haven’t even shown up yet.
After all, someone may not get a disease as a result of a vaccine that contained
atypical forms of a disease agent or other contaminants until years after vaccination.
And for many vaccines, a 48-hour limit has been arbitrarily set for reporting a reaction.
This means that if a baby dies 50 hours after a shot, that death is not reported
as an adverse reaction.

Chances are you won’t hear any information about vaccines from a pediatrician during
a “well baby” visit. After all, an M.D. could be committing career suicide by taking
a stand against vaccination. But it’s hard not to be angry at doctors and hospitals
who so willingly and unquestioningly accept the products of drug companies, and thereby
happily share in the billions of dollars being made off vaccines. It makes one wonder:
If those in power were faced with a choice between the health of our children and
a $30 billion industry, would they choose health over dollars? And if those involved
in the vaccine industry had done the studies and discovered that, beyond all doubt,
vaccinations are not only ineffective but are instead the cause of much disease and
death, would anyone tell us?

Someone may not get a disease as a result of a vaccine containing an atypical disease
agent or contaminant until years after they are vaccinated.

Clarence Darrow, the famous early 20th century lawyer, voiced an oft-quoted objection
to mandatory vaccination that’s still relevant today. He asked, if vaccinations really
work, those vaccinated will be immune to the disease, right? So what does it matter
if some people choose to go unvaccinated? What do the vaccinated have to worry about?
Aren’t they protected? Shouldn’t people have the choice whether or not to have their
children vaccinated—a choice based on full disclosure of risks and benefits? A lot
of medical doctors today know enough to withhold vaccines from their own children,
even though they continue to administer them to patients. Others just take the position
that “we don’t really know enough not to vaccinate people.” This is an intellectually
impotent position. If a doctor is going to stick a needle into a child’s arm and
inject something into the bloodstream, they should be certain that they have a thorough
knowledge of all the short-term and long-term consequences.

A lot of medical doctors today know enough to withhold vaccines from their own children,
even though they administer them to patients.

Before a parent lets a doctor do such a thing, they need to be equally well-informed.
The CDC’s statistics on adverse reactions show that vaccinations carry significant
risk. A parent needs to say to the pediatrician, “Before you inject my child, can
you prove to me that vaccines are safe and necessary?”

Contact:Tim O’Shea is a chiropractor and clinical nutritionist in San Jose, California.
His articles have appeared in holistic periodicals throughout the world. His two
current books are The Sanctity of Human Blood, from which this article was excerpted,
and Conventional Medicine vs. Holistic. His website is www.thedoctorwithin.com, at
which a complete reference list for this article may be found.